Justin Peato Ena (born November 20, 1977) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

coach and former

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

who is currently the

linebackers coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

at Brigham Young University football. He played college football at BYU and in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

and

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

Early life and college career

Born in Provo, Utah, Ena grew up in

Shelton, Washington Shelton is a city in, and the county seat of, Mason County, Washington, United States. Shelton is the westernmost city on Puget Sound. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 census. Shelton has a council–manager form of government and was th ...

and graduated from Shelton High School in 1996. Ena enrolled at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

in the spring of 1997 and immediately joined the

BYU Cougars football The BYU Cougars football team is the college football program representing Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. The Cougars began collegiate football competition in 1922, and have won 23 conference championships and one national champi ...

team as a linebacker, redshirting the 1997 season. In his first season with BYU in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, Ena played in 11 games with 22 tackles and an interception. Then in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

, Ena played in all 12 games with 49 tackles and a blocked kick. The

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...

(MWC) named Ena to its all-conference second-team that year. Moving from the strong side to inside to replace the NFL-bound Rob Morris, Ena had a breakthrough season in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, again starting all 12 games while leading the team with 107 tackles, in addition to three sacks, four pass deflections, one quarterback hurry, and three forced fumbles. He was a first-team All-MWC honoree in 2000. As a senior in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

, Ena again led BYU in tackles with 101 and made the All-MWC first-team. Ena graduated from BYU in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in history.

Pro football career

Following the

2002 NFL Draft The 2002 NFL draft was the 67th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually sinc ...

, Ena signed as an undrafted free agent with the

on April 26, 2002. In the 2002 and 2003 seasons, Ena played in 25 regular season games primarily on special teams, with 18 tackles. Ena also appeared in four postseason games during those years, with three tackles. After being waived by the Eagles, Ena signed with the

on September 6, 2004. Playing in 16 games with five starts, Ena had 32 tackles, including four for loss, along with a pass defended. On November 15, 2005, Ena returned to the Eagles. He appeared in six games with nine tackles.

Coaching career

Ena began a coaching career in 2008 as special teams coordinator at Southern Utah under

Ed Lamb Claude Edward Lamb III (born March 4, 1974) is an American college football coach and former player. In December 2022, he was named as the head football coach at the University of Northern Colorado. Lamb served as the head football coach at Sout ...

. After two years coaching special teams, Ena became defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2010, during which Southern Utah won the

Great West Conference The Great West Conference (GWC) was an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Originally a football-only league, it became an all-sports entity during the 2008–09 season. The GWC stopped sponsoring football followin ...

title and had a top-25 defense in

Division I FCS The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athlet ...

. The 2013 team had the second best defense in the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

. In 2014, he was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at

Weber State University Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was found ...

under Jay Hill. Ena then spent four years at

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

under

Kyle Whittingham Kyle David Whittingham (born November 21, 1959) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at the University of Utah, a position he has held since 2005, and is the all-time leader in wins at Utah. Prior to bec ...

, starting as the linebackers coach in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

before adding co-special teams coordinator to his duties in 2016. In December 2018, Ena was hired by head coach

Gary Andersen Gary Lee Andersen (born February 19, 1964) is an American football coach who was most recently head football coach at Utah State University. Andersen has also been the head football coach of Southern Utah (2003), Wisconsin (2013–2014), and Or ...

as defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach at Utah State. Following the 2019 season, Ena was reassigned to inside linebackers coach. When Andersen resigned following the 2020 season, Ena was not retained by the new staff, instead joining the staff at Dixie State as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. In February 2022, after one season at Dixie State, Ena joined

Brady Hoke Brady Patrick Hoke (; born November 3, 1958) is an American football coach in his second stint as the head coach at San Diego State University. He was previously the head coach at the University of Michigan from 2011 to 2014. Hoke grew up in O ...

's staff at San Diego State as the defensive line coach. On January 2, 2023, after one season at San Diego State, Ena joined

Kalani Sitake Kelaokalani Fifita "Kalani" Sitake (born October 10, 1975) is a Tongan Americans, Tongan–American American football, football coach and former player. He has been the head football coach at Brigham Young University (BYU) since December 2015, ...

's staff at Brigham Young University football as the defensive assistant coach over linebackers.

Personal life

Ena is of Samoan descent. His father was a school principal. Ena's uncle Tali Ena played fullback at

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washingto ...

and was selected in the 11th round of the

1980 NFL Draft The 1980 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1980, at the New York ...

by the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 a ...

. Justin Ena is married with two children.

References

External links

Utah State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ena, Justin 1977 births Living people American football linebackers BYU Cougars football players Philadelphia Eagles players Tennessee Titans players American sportspeople of Samoan descent Players of American football from Washington (state) People from Shelton, Washington Sportspeople from Provo, Utah Players of American football from Utah County, Utah Coaches of American football from Utah Coaches of American football from Washington (state) Utah State Aggies football coaches Southern Utah Thunderbirds football coaches Weber State Wildcats football coaches Utah Utes football coaches Utah Tech Trailblazers football coaches BYU Cougars football coaches